The Weekly Wrap: Jan. 30 - Feb. 5

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The Weekly Wrap walks readers through the last seven days in
MMA, recapping and putting into context the week's top story,
important news and notable quotes.

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Nick
Diaz, Robbie
Lawler and, perhaps surprisingly, Herschel
Walker, put forward the most talked-about performances on the
first Strikeforce card of 2010, a Jan. 30 bill from Sunrise, Fla.,
that drew the third-highest television rating in the three-year
history of MMA on Showtime.

Coming out of the event, however, the winners’ futures were varying
levels of unclear.

Diaz pitched a virtual shutout against the surging Dream
welterweight champion Marius
Zaromskis, showing poise and putting forth a diverse, exacting
boxing attack that leveled the Lithuanian in the first. It was an
electrifying performance from the unpredictable and rambling
Stockton native, as Diaz recovered from an early right body
knee-left hook combination that put him on the mat to lap past
Zaromskis. Diaz dug knees into his thigh in the clinch and scored
with a right baby hook to the temple as a staggered Zaromskis
attempted a punch. Diaz became the first Strikeforce welterweight
champion and earned $100,000 disclosed pay for the performance,
tied with Lawler for the highest payday of the night.

The title fight closed Strikeforce “Miami” before 7,010 spectators
at the BankAtlantic Center, which broke down to 4,927 paid and
2,083 comped. Ticket sales netted a $301,426 gate compared to the
$559,000 drawn at the last major MMA card in the building, the
final EliteXC event on Oct. 4, 2008, which was expected to be
headlined by Kevin "Kimbo
Slice" Ferguson vs. Ken Shamrock
and also featured Gina
Carano.

The attendance numbers, however, don’t tell the story in an age
where Strikeforce’s viability is firmly hitched to drawing high
television ratings. The Jan. 30 card drew an average of 517,000
viewers over the course of the three-hour broadcast on Showtime,
which happened to be offering a free promotional weekend for Direct
TV customers. The number was a big bump from the 341,000 for
December’s “Evolution” card, and third highest on Showtime after
the 576,000 drawn in August for the record-setting Carano vs.
Cristiane
"Cyborg" Santos title fight and the 522,000 drawn for the Feb.
2008 Kimbo Slice vs. David "Tank"
Abbott match.

Santos got co-main event billing in her first title defense, and
showed solid conditioning in shutting down most of the fits of
offense from veteran Marloes
Coenen for the third-round stoppage. Santos mostly bullied the
Dutch fighter around the cage; Coenen only managed a few one-off
strikes, but showed great resilience in taking hits.

But the bulk of mainstream attention -- besides the $50,000 fine
levied on NFL coach Rex Ryan for flipping the bird in the stands
during the event -- was on Herschel Walker’s win over fellow MMA
novice Greg Nagy via
third-round stoppage.

The 47-year-old, who was called “one of the greatest athletes of
the 20th century” on the broadcast -- let the kicks fly from a
curiously stiff standing position, and showed solid wrestling and
mount-taking ability. Walker at first glance appeared dull around
the edges -- he was preoccupied with pinning Nagy’s arms down from
the mount instead of raining down bombs -- but drew almost
universal praise for his debut in the cage.

Walker, who donated his rumored six-figure purse to charity, said
all the right things post-fight, criticizing his performance and
saying he would leave the decision about whether he fights again to
his trainers at American Kickboxing Academy. By week’s end he was
discussing a return in April, when Strikeforce has an event planned
for CBS.

Robbie
Lawler absorbed a vicious slate of leg kicks from Dutch
kickboxing dynamo Melvin
Manhoef before putting Manhoef to sleep in an early frontrunner
for “Knockout of the Year.” Lawler threw a total of only seven
strikes in the course of the fight, but they were the two that
mattered most in the fight. Lawler waited for Manhoef to close in
and drop his hands before uncorking an overhand right that put
Manhoef down and a perfectly-timed left hook on the ground for the
clean KO.

The performances piqued interest in the future of the winners, but
there wasn’t a clear future path for any of them.

For Diaz, most looked to Jay Hieron
following his win over Joe Riggs on
the Jan. 30 preliminary card. It was the last fight on Hieron’s
contract, and the likelihood of him facing Diaz next may have been
reflected in Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker floating Dream fighter
Hayato
Sakurai as Diaz’s next potential opponent. Diaz seemed cold to
both opponents in post-fight interviews, saying he’d like face
“somebody important” to motivate him, particularly someone who had
television exposure for their last fight. He said he wants to fight
Georges
St. Pierre; UFC President Dana White said later in the week
that Diaz’s out-of-the-cage exploits would prevent him from
bringing him back to the Octagon.

Lawler, who’s said to be eyeing a UFC return, was non-committal
when asked about re-matching Jake Shields
after his win. Lawler was a bit disgruntled when Strikeforce
cancelled his planned Dec. 19 fight after opponent Trevor
Prangley fell through. Erin
Toughill was floated for Cyborg, though Strikeforce also plans
an eight-woman tournament at 145 pounds that will play out over two
summer events to decide a No. 1 contender.

For former pro wrestling star Bobby
Lashley, a huge step up seemed in the works. Following an
underwhelming first-round stoppage over Wes Sims,
Lashley was talked about as the next fight for Brett
Rogers and even challenging Strikeforce heavyweight champion
Alistair
Overeem, who Coker said is expected back in May. Lashley told
Sherdog.com that, despite his stated plan of slowly building to
stiffer competition, “everybody’s pushing me to get bigger and
better fighters.” Negotiations for Lashley’s Jan. 30 fight featured
a revolving door of opponents, as several fighters were
disagreeable for several reasons.

Strikeforce was hardly the only television destination for MMA fans
on Jan. 30.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship countered in the form of an
airing of the UFC 107 pay-per-view fights on Spike TV. The fights,
which reportedly drew a higher pay-per-view buyrate than expected,
also had a great showing on free television, drawing a 1.64 rating
and 2.2 million viewers on Spike TV, which is available in about
five times more homes than Showtime.

The numbers were higher than some live UFC Fight Nights on Spike
(the Jan. 11 event did 1.7 million viewers) and were the
second-highest number for a pay-per-view replay on the station,
trailing the UFC 91 replay (Brock
Lesnar vs. Randy
Couture). The UFC 107 fights drew the highest rating on all of
cable that night among Males 18-34, and saw peak viewership for the
Frank
Mir vs. Cheick Kongo
fight, according to a report from Yahoo Sports.